There are myriad reasons hunting advocates give for the decline: growing urbanization that puts more kids out-of-touch with the land; landowners’ increasing unwillingness to let hunters onto their property; an inability to compete with video games, cell phones and other accoutrements of modern life; and increasingly busier activities schedules that take free time from kids — and parents — that could be used to hunt. The result, according to a report released by multiple hunting organizations, has been that there aren’t enough young hunters to replace the current population of adults. (Biggest surprise to me was the state that had the lowest replacement rate: Michigan.)
There’s been no lack of effort in trying to attract youths to hunting. Hunting organizations have been successful in lobbying state legislatures to reduce the minimum age a child can go with a licensed adult on a hunt; at least 30 have done so, including the unexpectedly woebegone hunting state of Michigan. Many states also have programs that allow youth hunters to start their season ahead of schedule, when wildlife would be at its most plentiful. Yet the declines remain unabated.
It seems to me there is one factor being left out in the discussion as to why fewer youths are hunting — the current American gun culture. In my lifetime — I’m 44 years old — gun culture has turned from the hunters I see on my Facebook feed to the Second Amendment, stand-your-ground absoluteness I think many more of us also see on our Facebook feed.
Actually, the turnaround in gun culture, based on these numbers from Pew Research Center, has happened in the lifetimes of my 17-year-old son and 15-year-old daughter:
About half (48%) of gun owners said the main reason they owned a gun was for protection, according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted in February 2013. About three-in-ten (32%) said they owned a gun for hunting. That was a turnaround from 1999 when 49% said they owned a gun for hunting and 26% said they had a gun for protection in an ABC News/Washington Post poll.
So, Mikeb, do you see this as good news, or bad? I mean, I know about your baffling, perverse "hunting is sick" stance, but I can't imagine you're very thrilled about the ascendancy of the "Second Amendment, stand-your-ground absoluteness" brand of gun owner.
ReplyDeleteAs an aside, without hunting, what would you propose to do to manage (for example) deer populations? Did you hear about the Cornell University campus being overrun with deer, so the bleeding heart anti-hunting airheads decided to trap the does and tie their tubes, at $1,200 per deer, coming to over $92,000? That worked swimmingly:
In fact, the sterilization had an unintended consequence: Because the does could not get pregnant, they entered heat month after month, and this brought more bucks onto the campus.
After all the time and energy spent on the program, the number of deer slightly increased.
They spent nearly 100 grand to reduce the deer population, and instead turned the campus into the most popular deer bordello in the area. I don't care who your are--that's some funny shit right there.
Anti-hunters--any dumber, and they could be vegetarians and cannibals, at the same time.
There should be a name for that - taking an absurd extreme example of something and passing it off as typical.
DeleteAbout the good news or bad, I'd say it's all good. The young people's attitude toward hunting cuts across the guns for self protection group as well. The future of gun ownership looks bleak, Kurt.
The future of gun ownership looks bleak, Kurt.
DeleteIf you say so. The future of my gun ownership looks pretty kickass to me.
Besides, Mikeb, how do you reconcile this notional "bleakness" for the future of gun ownership with the declining popularity of "gun control"?
DeleteMikeB: "There should be a name for that - taking an absurd extreme example of something and passing it off as typical."
DeleteThere is. It's called "BlogSpot: MikeB302000".
"how do you reconcile this notional "bleakness" for the future of gun ownership with the declining popularity of "gun control"?"
DeleteFirst of all, we're talking about a poll. What happens is the apathy that non-gun owners suffer from slants the results. While gun owners are passionate since they have something to lose, non-gun owners mainly don't care. They think, often wrongly, that gun violence will never touch them.
What happens today in Washington State should give us a better reading than any poll or survey.
What happens is the apathy that non-gun owners suffer from slants the results.
DeleteThat apathy also "slants the results" of elections. Voters highly motivated about the gun issue are more likely to vote with that issue in mind. As even CSGV admits:
More importantly, says Ladd Everitt of the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, [gun rights advocates] have cultivated a committed corps of "single-issue voters" — people who reliably trek to the polls to cast a ballot for the candidate who will go to the mat for their right to bear arms. "We have not been able, to the degree we need, to develop a single-issue public-safety vote," Everitt says. "That is our challenge."
Indeed it is--and "gun control" advocates will fall far short of meeting that challenge."
What happens today in Washington State should give us a better reading than any poll or survey.
Planning to read a lot into what happens in one state, I see. As you will. Enjoy.
"That apathy also "slants the results" of elections. "
DeleteTrue, but not as much as evidenced yesterday in at least "one state."
I'm doing my part. This year my youngest son will be hunting for the first time. middle daughter wanted to, but she wasn't quite ready skill wise. So next year for her, if she wants too.
ReplyDeleteBTW, she'll be using my M4 because her brother's rifle is a bit too big size wise. The M4's evil collapsible stock however helps it to fit her perfectly. In my opinion, a very good example of a characteristic used to define a bad rifle being useful in the civilian world.
Are you going to teach her how to cut and gut herself, or are you going to do it for her?
DeleteThat's part of the process Anon.
DeleteThat's the part of the process many skip. I guess you didn't know that, or you wouldn't be so dismissive of it.
Delete"That's the part of the process many skip."
DeleteNot up in my neck of the woods. Granted, I'll be taking it to someone else to be processed, but it still needs to be dressed before taking it in.
You don't butcher your own kill? What a wimp. Not surprising though, you just like the kill.
DeleteNot being a wimp, just no place to do it easily. I live in an apartment. When my circumstances change, so will that....
DeleteA hunter should know how to butcher their own kill. It's as basic as knowing where the barrel of your gun is pointed.
Delete